A photograph showing former White House intern Monica Lewinsky meeting President Bill Clinton at a White House function submitted as evidence in documents by the Starr investigation and released by the House Judicary committee September 21, 1998. (photo credit: Getty Images)

The third and final night of the three-part miniseries eventThe ‘90s: The Last Great Decade?: Politically Incorrect is tonight at 9P. As the world approaches the infamously disappointing Y2K, the United States is racing on the informational superhighway that is both making and breaking careers. Tech entrepreneurs are simultaneously working against and saving each other, and some are growing richer and richer as the dotcom bubble grows. New markets are growing left and right, including the drug market with companies like Pfizer and their drug Viagra, which American politician Bob Dole publicly endorsed in a cringe-worthy commercial in 1998. The fall of sexual taboos that characterized this era is highlighted when the media feasts on President Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, which would spur the course of his impeachment.

Tragedies also strike on both sides of the pond with the Columbine shootings, which forced the issue of mental health into American minds, and with Princess Diana’s death, which shed light on the questionable ethics of stalker-like media paparazzi. Protests grow against the WTO in Seattle as Generation X finds a united cause that spurs the group stereotyped as having fallen through the cracks, but Al Qaeda’s increasing attacks start to put the nation’s problems in perspective as the very real threat grows despite multiple opportunities to nip it in the bud.

Tonight’s episode features personal details from Monica Lewinsky herself. She talks about her side of the story and how the public and media put her life up for grabs in horrible ways. Check out this preview and be sure to tune in tonight at 9P to hear the rest!

Remember to play along live tonight on RuleThe90s.comto test your ‘90s trivia knowledge and earn double the points as new questions are unlocked throughout the episode. Top the leaderboard and take home some awesome ’90s prize packs (not to mention, bragging rights for being all that and a bag of chips)!

Comments

Trent

July 8, 2014, 9:48 pm

Great job, National Geographic, for politicizing the Columbine tragedy on the show… Utterly disgusting

Jonathan Walford

Cambridge, Ontario, Canada

July 9, 2014, 10:11 am

I enjoyed this presentation but found it heavy on the American news-stories and light on international stories and pop culture in general. There were important trends and names that were overlooked that provided the real zeitgeist of the decade. This series needed another 2 hour addition to cover some of this information, as well as a juggling of some of the amount of time spent on topics.

Fashion was completely ignored – the influence of black, Prada, Goth, and Fetish on fashion were major trends, as were hippie chic and flannel shirts via grunge, and platform shoes via club kids. In Music there was a small segment on rap and grunge, but the rise of Country music (Billy Ray Cyrus and country line dancing), and boy bands were completely ignored, and its hard to not mention some leading names of the era like Mariah Carey, Boyz II Men, Alanis Morissette, and Hootie and the Blowfish.

Other than Blair Witch and Toy Story, which were rightly featured because they changed how movies are made, I was surprised to see no mention of major films of the era that are widely considered to be some of Hollywood’s most successful products – ever: Shawshank Redemption, Schindler’s List, Titanic… and while some television series were featured: Roseanne, Seinfeld, X-files and West Wing, other influential and timely shows were missed: Twin Peaks, Frasier, The Simpsons, and Murphy Brown, for example.

In respect to the news stories, I felt that there was too much time spent on some of the topics that in retrospect are not very interesting. The Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas case for example – did it need 5 minutes of coverage? Especially at the expense of Nelson Mandela rising from jail to president, JFK junior’s death, the rise of China as an economic superpower, wars in Serbia and Rwanda, the intro of the Euro, Mad cow disease in Britain, Nazi gold repayments to holocaust victims… This was a great start, but the series needed more to be a better survey of the decade.

Joey B

United States

July 10, 2014, 2:30 pm

The 80’s documentary was amazing and covered so many different things. Many things were fun like skateboarding, valley girls, clothes, tv shows, exercising, personal computers, walkmans, the US winning the gold in Hockey, etc. It had a very nice flow as well. I was born in ’81. Everything in the documentary was almost like watching someone play back a dream I had but couldn’t quite remember. It was awesome. The 90’s doc, however, covered the years when I was about 8-18. I was like damn, it was a chaotic decade huh. Although, I remember a lot of great sports figures, video games, amusement parks and MOVIES! It looked like the 80’s turned to straight crap and it made the US look like Simpsons were right on the money. It was really an age of white trash, scandals, tragic bombings and killings and straight stupidity. I think the only reason the 90’s beat the 80’s in ratings is because the 80’s doc was so great. The same thing happens when a movie’s sequel beats out the ticket sales of the original, and turns out to be inferior.

MissInformed

September 11, 2014, 1:36 pm

Could’ve used a fourth episode. I think it didn’t focus enough on positive things and a lot of the pop culture and entertainment provided.

Nicholas

Australia

March 10, 2015, 7:06 pm

Can you please tell me is Melrose Place featuring in your documentary?